Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Closet survey #1 - Less Wrong

53 [deleted] 14 March 2009 07:51AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 March 2009 08:41:19AM 41 points [-]

You know something, I simply don’t believe you.

All readers, please vote up this comment if you believe identity doesn't follow atoms. Vote down this comment if you believe that it does. I'll take my licks if I'm wrong, go on and hit me.

Comment author: Liron 15 March 2009 09:10:17PM 11 points [-]

This is shameless Karma whoring. We should ban this user.

Comment author: MichaelHoward 15 March 2009 09:14:57PM 7 points [-]

Damn right! Eliezer, you should donate that karma to the Singularity Institute.

Comment author: Lawliet 15 March 2009 08:55:23AM 7 points [-]

I think he is implying that we think we agree when we dont really, in that case he would expect us to vote in agreement with you.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 March 2009 09:34:22AM 11 points [-]

Actually, I'm worried he's having some kind of breakdown. The Eternally Recurring Personal Identity Wars had plenty of arguers on both sides. JKC was there. Him now talking like he's the only one who ever believed that deconstruction and reconstruction using "different atoms" preserves identity, may indicate that the Personal Identity Wars really literally did send him off the edge.

I have to say, this is a failure mode I've never encountered before:

"You won! It's over! Look, we all agree with you!"

"NO! IT IS NOT OVER! I AM THE ONLY PERSON ON THIS SIDE AND I AM STILL LOSING, DAMMIT!"

Comment author: marc 15 March 2009 12:00:15PM 8 points [-]

Have you really never seen this before? I actually find that I myself struggle with it. When you define yourself as the plucky outsider it's difficult and almost unsatisfying when you conclusively win the argument. It ruins your self-identity because you're now just a mainstream thinker.

I've heard of similar stories when people are cured of various terminal diseases. The disease becomes so central to their definition of self that to be cured makes them feel slightly lost.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 March 2009 04:59:20PM 3 points [-]

I haven't seen it before. Maybe if you counted Stephen J. Gould, but I expect he was lying more than crazy.

I guess most of the people I know are, shall we say, secure enough in their identity as iconoclasts, that they can enjoy winning any particular argument without fear.

Hadn't heard about the case of the terminal diseases, either.

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